He’s young. He has amazing hair. *

Good LORD. It's only a few weeks until this 101 in 1001 thing is done. Honestly - it seemed like a good idea at the time but I reckon 1001 days is too long. Well, too long for me anyway. Advice for new players in the round up at the end. But NOW - what's the score?

COMPLETE/ONGOING = 51
In progress = 11
Not started = 38

What can I potentially get done in the next few weeks?
#7 Visit all Auckland Regional parks
#19 Read all of Jane A.
#20 Learn 10 poems by heart
#40 Share a meal with friends or family every two months
#70 Read the books I own but haven't read
#90 Get an emergency kit for the car
#91 Make copies of important documents

Prompted to check by this short story by Paula Morris published in the NZ Herald.

* Hollywood Swoons Over That Hair, That Baton

Less talky, more...smashy

#7 Visit all Auckland Regional parks

I went to the opening of the latest ARC park yesterday - Atiu Creek. We are so fortunate to have it AND it was gifted. The ARC team have worked hard to develop it into a park as the previous owners handed it over only three years ago. That might sound like a long time but I imagine there is a lot of work that goes into organising the walks, creating paths, laying roads, changing the land from a farm into a park etc. We were lucky yesterday in that we could drive much further into the park than would normally be allowed. That meant the starting points for the walks were different to the sheet of paper. Unfortunately I was on the other side of the park having lunch during the opening ceremony...I'd been walking for about an hour and I was hungry! It was great to just laze about on the grass and read my book. The park is huge! I'm really really looking forward to going back and having another look.

Pic - Entrance to the park, 69.5km from the Orewa BP.

#60 Take part in an event for charity

Did this today. A lovely walk along the beach along with a number of other people - 100+ I'd say. A few dogs and a few pushchairs. Kudos to those mums, I found it hard enough to get myself going! (Well, not really.) It was hot work but I think I was clippin' along at a good pace.

Pix - at the start; along the beach; "Did you really walk 4km?"

Last published

#7 Visit all Auckland Regional parks
Camping at Waharau on the weekend. Nice area to camp in with great flat areas, concrete fire pads, trees and a creek running around the edge. Amenities not that great (1-2 longdrop toilets by the campground; no showers.) Information on website, on map and at the park all different. We thought the Waharau ridge walk was 3 hours, 14km. (Well , that's what it says on the website.) Actually it's 3.5 hours, 12 km and includes 40mins uphill. (That's what they mean when they describe the track as "difficult".) Quite a nice trek in the end. Well established path in most places and interesting views out across the Firth. Also did the bush walk through pretty bush. Park established in 1979 and it shows (in a good way! Beautiful driveway between native trees on the way to the campsite. Good marker posts and well established trails.)

Drove past the entrance to Whakatiwai Regional Park about 3 times. It's hidden away off the side of a private driveway. (in the photo, the park is alongside the line of trees on the left.) Not much to see in the tiny bit we walked around. Contrary to the information on the website (18km, 180 mins) the sign on the park says it's a 6 hour tramp to Waharau. We shall see.

Popped into Mutukaroa/Hamlins Hill park on the way home. It's under development and is currently not much more tha dry, parched, yellow paddocks with pukeko and their offspring. I couldn't find the entrance either. Ended up in a neighbouring carpark and jumping the fence.

in the name of all that is sweet and buttery

7. Visit all Auckland Regional parks
Waitakere Ranges. The Oxfam team did the Montana Heritage trail on Saturday. Major hills up and some quite dodgy footing. Very interesting bush to look at, lots of mature kauri. We whipped through it so fast I didn't even have time to take any pictures.

Awhitu on Sunday. An older, more established park than some we've been to, it has lovely paths between the manuka and other plants. Lots of wetland planting which has even spilled over to the rest of the peninsula. A very hot day which made the dry dry dry paddocks look even drier. Very safe beach for swimming as it stays a fairly regular depth quite a way out. Advice - swim when the tide is in.

The ARCpark count is getting quite good. There are a few parks in development which I'm not sure that we can get to. Another one is a stadium and the only way to visit is to go to something that's on. That leaves about 6 to go. They are mostly south of Auckland and will mean a bit more travelling time for me. (Although hopefully not as much as when we visited Tapapakanga. Too much talking. Not enough navigating.)

#97 'Run' from home to my home town
With all the training for #60 Take part in an event for charity (Yay! we have a team! Sponsor us!) the numbers are steadily ticking up.

Mo Bros

Having trouble with Blogger at the mo so will keep this quick and no pics...

#7 Visit all Auckland Regional parks
Went camping at Tapapakanga regional park. Lucked out with the weather. Great companions. Nice walk (even steep Fuck-off Mountain.) Wine and toasted marshies around the fire delicious. Sea not too cold. Shower much too cold and public. Felt a teensy bit guilty as companions experienced and well organised campers. Tried to make up for it with fetching and carring and food making/baking. However. Someone had to watch the fire while the others went looking for firewood right?
Also went to Botanic gardens for Sculpture walk. (#77 Walk around an outdoor sculpture park.) Arrived three minutes before a guided tour went around so were lucky to tag onto that. One of the artists was explaining his work and the motivation and intention of the other artists and how the piece was either very specific to the placement in the garden or not. Interesting to see how placement could affect whether or not the piece worked for me personally - I though some would be better in an urban environment. Loved loved loved several pieces.

Nibbly

#51 Visit North Shore literary locations

Completed this morning. LoM came over to Devonport on the ferry. We wandered around the Stanley Bay and Devonport literary walks for about an hour and a half and then had a delicious breakfast at a cafe on Church St. Although we didn't know all of the literary personages it was interesting just walking around and looking at houses. A nice young gentleman helped us when we were a bit lost so that was nice too. The cafe was a real neighbourhood cafe. It was well patronised and every person who arrived after us seemed to know someone who was already there. About 5 dogs were attached to various people. They were well behaved and looked as if this occurance was a regular Saturday morning thang.

#7 Visit all Auckland Regional parks

After finishing at Devonport we drove up to Long Bay. And it is looong. It took a crazy amount of time to wander around the park. It took an even longer time to realise that the land I was looking at over the water was the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. Felt like a complete egg especially after taking a careful look and identifying bays and individual buildings. Stopped looking at the buildings on the way back to the car. See, the sun was out and the birds were singing but the mud was deep in places. So on the way back we came back along the beach.

The rocky, slippery, twisty, shelly, tricksy beach. I fell over a couple of times. My shiny white shoes are no longer so shiny. I am sunburnt. I almost had to claw my eyes out because of the nude sunbathers but luckily remembered to be distracted in time and babbled on about walking Shakespear Park. (At the end of the aforementioned Peninsula.)

One of the best ARCparks. Good parking, well patronised (lots of teens flexing) (not that I was interested in them!), good facilites for BBQ etc, nice beach. Highlight - it's close to suburbia but unlike some of the others, doesn't feel like it.

It's got the x-factor...

Flee the exploding house

Ooh! Pictures from Duder ARC park.

Ice-cream is a food group

#66 Attend some festival events - arts, literature, movies etc

I went to my first festival event! Matariki Breakfast at the Stardome Observatory. Matariki is the celebration of Maori New Year - when the Matariki constellation rises above the horizon before dawn. This constellation is also known as the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters. Apparently every culture in the world has a story about the constellation. It is also visible in the evening during summer - so I might have more success in seeing it in summer then than I did in the morning.

First I was up really early (4am) to drive into town. Of course without any other cars on the road (although I must say I was surprised at the number that were on the road that early on a Saturday morning) it took me half the time that I was expecting it to take so I was super early. Second, when I got to the Stardome I actually pulled into a different parking spot first, blinding two men with the car's high-beams because I thought that they were part of the group but it turns out that they were not, in fact, part of the group but two pissed off citizens of South Auckland doing a deal. (I don't know if that's true but that's what I decided they were as they squinted at me through the windscreen.) Third, the sky had been clear when I checked at 4am but the clouds and wind had got up during my drive in. So after the walk up to the top of One Tree Hill all we could see was cloud and haze along the horizon where Matariki was supposed to be. It was blowing a gale up there! Fourth, our guide did her best - pointing out other stars like the Chief (he stands alone) and Reigel (Puanga) and some other constellations but we didn't have any luck. The clouds covered where Matariki should have been and then when the clouds had gone...the sun was coming up so it was too light. (I was well wrapped up against the cold but I think some others were freezing by the end.)

We did get to go back down to a fantastic, delicious breakfast (not enough coffee for that hour of the morning) plus a zip through what the stars should have looked like in the Stardome theater. Well worth the experience. There's something really elementary about looking at the stars and wanting to know what they are. You can feel a real connection with the ancestors as those were the same stars they were looking at. they bought more coffee out after the shows - but took away the sugar and milk. :)

Most embarassing moment - (LoM would say it was realising that the person walking behind us down the hill could hear every word of our conversation but...) when I went into the stardome the second time and it was dark and I didn't wait to let me eyes adjust so a) I tried to walk up the side of the chairs where there wasn't actually any space and b) eventually walked very quickly into the side of a chair.

#7 Visit all Auckland Regional parks

Also on Saturday LoM and I visited Ambury regional park. It's a cute little farm in the lee of Mangere Mountain. ARC uses it as an educational camping park so there are fun signs on the paddocks with animal picture and names like 'Timmy' (the turkey) and 'Freida' (the pig). We wandered around the animal pens before coming back to see the cows being milked (Amber and Fresia) and pet the calves (not named yet).

It was pretty windy out on the exposed farmland but since I was wearing polypro (whoever invented that stuff deserves a medal, it's brilliant) and a rain jacket I was warm as just popped toast. We ambled round the perimeter track and then took a little side trip toward the bird hide in the Watercare land that is right next to the park. Didn't actually make it to the bird hide as there were some words like 'quiet' and 'move slowly'. There looked to be some really interesting walks out to the stone fields so that might be something for another day.

Funniest moment - watching a brown sheep stalk a pukeko. The pukeko would nibble some grass. The sheep would sneak up behind it without actually looking at it. It would stand there. It would lower its head but not eat any grass. The pukeko would walk away. It would nibble some grass. The sheep would sneak up behind it etc etc. Hai-lari-oos.

Drove over to check out Mangere Mountain but since we'd have to get out of the car to walk to the top (in the wind) flagged it, went home, got changed then went to a couple of cafes. This is something on LoM's list. We managed to get to 2 so that was pretty good.

I got to recite "The Jabberwocky" which of course is poem one for #20 Learn 10 poems by heart. I am onto learning poem number two which is going to be "For the Fallen" by Laurence Binyon. Stanza four is used in military rememberance ceremonies so it is quite an emotional poem because of that.

To top off the day we joined up with some friends and went to see Lobby Hero at Silo. it was excellent. The audience was fairly quiet but warmed up after the interval. It took a little while for the actors to settle into their accents. No problems once they had and we were drawn into the story. Highly recommended. (Great set design too plus good direction.) It doesn't count as #43 See a performance that doesn't include anyone I know since I do know someone in it.

#35 Cook through the Edmonds cookbook

No baking this weekend which I got stick for at work today.

not mr right now even eow

Busy weekend.

#40 Share a meal with friends or family every two months
When I put this on the list we'd just finished a round of hanging out with friends and family and I could see a vast stretch of time without anything planned. I was afraid that if I didn't give myself a kick I might just lapse into a stay-at-home-tv-watching-isolate. However it has turned out to be no issue at all because something always comes up. for e.g. Friday - dinner with friends; Saturday - dinner with friends; Sunday - dinner with a friend. So this one is going pretty well.

#7 Visit all Auckland Regional parks
Two more parks off the list. I'm feeling a bit, uncomfortable, at my attitude re just getting the parks done and marked off. I'm enjoying wandering around but feel that I shouldn't just be focused on marking it off. Having said that I do want to go back to a couple of the parks and do some of the walks that we didn't get to do so I guess that once again it isn't really an issue.

On Saturday LoM and I went to Omana and Duder parks. They are at the southern end of Auckland. I'd often cycled past them on training rides but didn't realise it until now.

Omana is a pretty little park with views out to the islands. They feel very close - almost close enough to swim to. Or maybe kayak to. It's interesting to see the islands from the 'other side' as it were. We walked the perimeter - round past the pa site and the goats (Dixie, Trixie and Pixie), through the manuka and kanuka (soft like cashmere), past the mangroves and up over the top to the lookout. Although I think of that area as being in the country it is actually quite built up. There was a sports ground quite close and a busy road that you could hear all over the park so it didn't feel like you were away from it all. Maybe at a different time of the day? A good park to go to with the kids - there were pigs, rabbits, chickens, dinner, I mean guinea pigs, and sheep. Plus the -ixies. It's fairly small in terms of land mass and has quite diverse eco-systems to look at.

Duder is just down the road and around a few corners. They have the best board out of all the parks we've visited so far. (Oh, and theirs and Omana's pamphlet boxes are well stocked too.) They also have orienteering maps to take out with way markers to hunt out. We were on a timeline but we did as many as were on our route. By golly the wind was cold! The walk started off along a flat bit. Nice, well gravelled road. I spotted a plastic bag in the bush with a clue - maybe an orienteering clue? The frame was supposed to be in this area but damned if either of us could find it. Lots of sheep in the paddocks as we started up the hill. We went out to the pa. Amazing views out into the bay. Once again the islands looked close enough to swim out to. Now it was quite warm - get out of the wind and it was very warm! More sheep and some large Herefords which I'm afraid to say I freaked out a bit at. One of them on the way back (while we were waiting for the hang glider man to do his thing) ambled over to say "hi" and crept closer and closer while it was munching on grass. I was ready to run and leap for the fence even though LoM said they were harmless.
This is probably the park where we saw the most people. Even though it's out in the middle of nowhere it was well patronised. People were even arriving as we were leaving at 3pm. The weather was fantastic so I guess that bought lots of people (like us) out.

Goodbye Dr Burke - does a clue lie in his name?

Images from yesterday's jaunt to Muriwai. As follows...

The sign at Muriwai beach. See the warnings on the sign? There were more on the sign where we had lunch! The beach is notorious for sweeping fisherpeople off the rocks into the ocean never to be seen again. From the cliffs we could see a couple of large rips in the water. All praise to the the lifeguards who risk their lives watching over others.


Looking up at the cliffs surrounding the carpark. The cliffs round those parts are quite sheer. When we were driving up around the town we came to the end of a cul-de-sac. There was a driveway going into a property that didn't have a fence which looked over the edge of the cliff. The effect was like you get on an infinity pool - the end of the driveway and then nothing but space. Even from the road it looked spectacular. Hopefully quite safe...

From the carpark to gannet rock. Muriwai is known for nesting gannets. The little 'island' with the chomp out of it is where they nest. (Can't remember if it is actually an island.) There are lots of sightseers when the gannets are nesting.





(I can't quite believe I've taken a picture of this but... ) The grass roofed toilets at gannet beach. You can just see them at the bottom of the cliff. They looked pretty cool and blended well with the landscape.

Oh, and the food...

Incident of blackbirds

I made progress on the following things without even trying today...

#7 Visit all Auckland Regional parks
Boyfriend and I went out for a picnic lunch today. We drove out to a lookout then decided we'd pop over to Muriwai since the view from the lookout wasn't that spectacular. Turns out that Muriwai beach is an ARC park. We drove up and around for a bit before coming back down to the Takapu reserve. The weather wasn't that great though so we didn't do a lot of walking and had our picnic in the van.

#35 Cook through the Edmonds cookbook
Muffins for the picnic (which we ate at home before we left); afghan biscuits with chocolate icing; chocolate nut bar with melted chocolate icing (which I'm a bit worried about, I don't think it's going to set) ; roast chicken with mixed herb stuffing and gravy. Feels like heaps...would have baked more but have run out of butter!
While I love baking, I do think I need to start concentrating on the savoury dishes a bit more. Trouble is, I can't very well take a roast lamb into work for everyone now can I?

#95 Buy some bonus bonds
I hope to get this one marked off within the next couple months. My sister and I have agreed to suspend payments into our joint account. I'll use the money that I'd usually pay to buy some bonus bonds. (Originally I thought I'd use it to pay for shoes but that's not really appropriate is it?)

#43 See a performance that doesn't include anyone I know
Tickets are booked to King Lear on Wednesday 22 August 2007 at 7pm. Circle T30-32. Perhaps I should have read this review first? Probably would have gone anyway. Although I've heard of the lead I don't know him personally so it counts towards this. Now it's just a waiting game.

#54 Write a book for my niece
Have discovered I suck at this. I can't even get past 150 words! Boyfriend is all "haha you're terrible Muriel" because he is up to something like 30,000 words. It does not bode well for #6 Write a novel .

housemousepixiewixie *

Wow! What an eventful weekend.

#7 Visit all Auckland Regional parks. This weekend LoM and I walked Tawharanui on Saturday, and the Shakespeare and Wenderholm parks on Sunday. It rained both days so we were pretty good at getting the ole wet weather gear on by the end. There were heaps of people around too, even way up at Tawharanui.

Highlights

Tawharanui - clambering up and down the trail to get to the lookout. Plus the wood pigeons we spotted in the bush part of the ecology trail. This park is an open sanctuary so there is lots of wildlife around. (Including some surfers and camping teens.)




Shakespear - the waterfall area. The fall itself wasn't so impressive as there isn't much water around but the atmosphere was pretty good. Also the lookout to the city with a map - apparently there was a map looking back to Orewa but someone vandalised it.





Wenderholm - stonking up the hill in double quick time. It was weird going through the manuka bush. It had been raining pretty heavily so there was water on the ground except in the bush where you couldn't even tell that it had rained. Freaky.




Sad bad points - realising that 'packing in, packing out' (re. rubbish) for some people means 'dumping rubbish including used nappies in the carpark' or 'dropping snack bar wrappers on the trail'. Granted the second could have fallen out of someone's pocket (like the MAP of Tawharanui which fell out of my pocket HALFWAY around the track when we were making up our OWN combination of trail and it was getting DARK) but there isn't any excuse for the first instance. What must those people be like at home? Still on Saturday we stopped off at Waiwera hot pool on the way home for a bit of a soak. It was enjoyable but I'm not sure that it's worth the $27 (entry plus locker) fee. Maybe if I was more into the slides I'd have got my money's worth.

That night another friend came over and we had Mexican (#38 Host a (foreign country) themed meal) with margaritas (#33 Margarita night). Finally I get the appeal of tequila. Yum yum!



Today (Monday) I have been baking like a demon. (#35 Cook through the Edmonds cookbook)Not with the fire and brimstone but just lots of things from the Edmonds. (Oh - visited Couldrey house at Wenderholm where there is an 'Edmonds kitchen'. The family were related somehow.) Three types of biscuits, nachos and FUDGE! (#8 Make fudge) It was much more successful this time. Mojojojo says that the key to fudge is to make it lots of times. I think I can do that. Went out and bought some measuring spoons too.

*my cat

Black Spidey is so emo

Made progress on #7 visit all Auckland regional parks. Went to Shakespear park with my boyfriend. It rained. We got very wet. And very cold. There were lots of birds around - pukekos (boy, those fellas like fighting!) several types of gull, peacocks and more. There was some sort of church group up at the YMCA camp - we could hear them singing cheerfully while we wandered around. I will go back and walk the tracks one day but the weather foiled that attempt this weekend.

Had a friend up to watch a couple of DVDs ("Kinky boots" heeheehee and "Friends with money" Comedy? you are kidding me! Also - why does Jennifer Aniston always look so sad?). Practised making margaritas. Points to note 1. Don't make drinks with lots of crushed ice when it's cold outside. 2. make sure the jug of drink is within easy reach. i cooked breakfast this morning so '#40 share a meal with friends or family every two months' is covered for this double-month.

#86 Complete A-Z reading challenge - authors.

Bray, Libba "A great and terrible beauty"

First in a series about a girl who is sent from her home in India to a boarding school in England after her mother dies. She has some strange and terrible, mystical experiences which put her and her friends (and the whole world) in danger.

What did I think? Interesting characters and character development make this a teen novel to enjoy. The characters aren't perfect - even the heroine - which makes them all the more interesting. Found through reader suggestions on 'A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago'. The comments have disappeared from the post that I think mentioned this book so can't confirm (Wednesday 11 April, um 12 april? Not sure.)

do not leave your longings unattended

Progress!

#87 Complete A-Z reading challenge - titles 3/26 and started #86 Complete A-Z reading challenge - authors. Reviews to come.

#97 'Run' from home to my home town. 4/160km. There's a long way to go.

#93 Watch 'Dark Angel' on DVD. Complete. Mental note - next time watch Season One BEFORE Season Two. A whole lot of things made so much more sense. Verdict to come.

#2 Make alphabet cubes. I have a niece who is only new - she will be 1 in september. I'm planning to make her some alphabet cubes which I have never done before. But of course I have to do something tricky - I want her to be able to spell her names out. That means I need at least 6 cubes for the longest name. Then I want her to be able to spell the names of her friends and family which means that certain letters can't be on the same block - e.g. D and J and O. Add to that the fact that I want to include the Maori alphabet making it 28 letters rather than 26 and it all gets a bit complicated. I think I've figured out what I need to do to ensure that it will work. I'm thinking of mocking some up in paper before I start cutting and sticking. Plus I have to buy some fabric scissors. I do have the fabric and a sewing machine!

#50 No black to work for a week. Done and laundered. This was an interesting experiement. I had to combine clothes that I normally wouldn't wear together. Surprisingly this went down quite well with my colleagues. What did I learn? That you should always try new combinations of things. (Thank god it's over though!)

No progress - We didn't end up going to Tawharanui on the weeknd. My friend's family came up and she hung out with them - and had a great time by all accounts. So #7 remains unfulfilled.

On a whim

Update #13 - plus 15km. I've decided to cycle the length of State Highway one. It's more achievable than around New Zealand. All it would take is one bad week and then suddenly I'd have to try and fit in a 100km ride on top of the normal 15km-a-day cycle. For a good read on cycling in New Zealand try "Long Cloud Ride" by Josie Dew. I've read all her other books (at least, I think I've read them all...) and she has a unique way of looking at the world. I guess you have to when you're cycling alone through foreign countries. :)

Update #93 - watch Dark Angel on DVD. I'm getting it from the library and the first discs from Season one have started coming through. Unfortunately it's discs 4,5,6 and not 1,2,3. 1 is on it's way, 2 is out and god only knows what's happening with 3. On it's way soon hopefully.

I've started '#50 Don't wear black to work for a week' by mistake really. Yesterday I wore brown and blue, today brown and red. Tomorrow I'm going to wear brown and pink. Tomorow I'll also be doing some washing.

Um, what else? Well, my friend has finally finished her list which has a number of very cool, challenging, exciting things on it. I'd link, but she's made it invitees only (so I'm hoping I'm going to get an invite!) BUT one of the things on her list (I think) is to plant a tree on her birthday which is this Saturday. I've suggested we sneak the list and plant it on Sunday at one of the Auckland Regional Parks - Tawharanui ( #7 Visit all Auckland Regional Parks.) I have a HUGE vehicle bill coming up so I can only give her time as a present. Isn't that all anyone wants though?